Prepared calcium carbid.



UNITED STAT-Es PATENT OFFICE.

PREPARED CALCIUM CARBID.

sPEoIrIcA'rIoN forming part of Letters Patent No. 648,350, dated April 24, leoo.

Original application filed ne 3 0, 1898, Serial No, 684,871. Divided and this application filed January 18, 1900. Serial No- 1,927, (N0 specimens.)

To aZZ whom it may concern; Be it known that I, CHARLES EMMANUEL YVONNEAU, a citizen of the French Republic, residing at 62 Rue Condorcet, Paris, France, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Agglomerative Gas-Producing Bodies; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The present invention relates to a new artiole of manufacture, and has for its object to provide a superior gas-producing body of carbid of calcium having the general characteristics of the ordinary carbid-wthat is to say, which will develop acetylene gas in the presence of water or other aqueous liquid-this application being a division of original application, Serial No. 684,871, filed June 30, 1898.

ing the carbid with a sheathing or protective coating, as hereinafter described.

A further object of the invention is to facilitate the use of the improved carbid for the Various purposes to which it may be applied by manufacturing the same preferably in the form of prismatic and cylindrical bodies with x a sheathing, as above referred to, whereby when exposed to the atmosphere the carbid is unaffected by ahygroscopic state of the same.

These and other features will be fully explained in the course of the following description.

This carbid is obtained in the following manner:

First. I heat in a receptacle of any preferred construction adapted to be heated by water-steam and provided with an agitator sixteen parts of glucose and four parts of a fatty body, such as any oil. I do not confine myself to any particular fatty substance or oil nor to the proportions herein stated, as the The new product is much handier in use than the ordinary commercial carbid and same are dependent on saccharine substance employed, the above-indicated proportions being used to obtain one hundred parts of the product. The bodies are then heated to 100 centigrade and thoroughly agitated, so as to form a perfectly-homogeneous mass substan tially soluble in water.

Second. Ordinary calcium carbid is immersed in an oil to prevent its decomposi= tion during the crushing operation and then broken in any suitable manner into fragments, and about eighty parts thereof are heated to a suitable temperature.

Third. The small fragments of carbid are introduced when hot into the mixture of glucose and oil mentioned under step 1, said mixture being kept boiling above 100 centigrade. The mixing produces a boiling up or effervescence of the substances which are gradually transformed into a mixture possessing a radically-different nature from said subs ces. This effervescence is not the result ofth e vapor contained in the glucose en-' 'deavoring to free themselves from the mass,

and shape, according to the class of apparatus with which it is intended to be used-as,

for instance, manufacturing or private gasgenerating plants, acetylene-gas-generating lamps, and the like. The forms most preferred are solid prisms, cylinders, and the like. In manufacturing these bodies the amount of carbid compressed in each always corresponds to a certain unit of the production of gas which is desired. The sticks of carbid thus prepared are coated with a suitable hydrofuge, which when dry is imperviousto moisture, and even if brought into contact with water will dissolve. Very slowly. The carbid cannot be attacked directly by the water, as it is similarly proof against Watervapors and a hygroscopic state of the atmosweak or retarded that it is practically odorless."

- I While the ordinary carbid cannot with facility be broken into pieces of therequisite.

size, the new product, on the contrarymfiers no difiiculty in this direction, as it canbe prepared in blocks of any dimensions, as above stated, ready for immediate use.

The productionof gas from the useof my carbid is'very regular, and a noticeable feature is the absence ofquick intermittent ove1' productions so frequent at present; 'Tilieire siduum is very slight, and thereby the use ofcumbersome apparatus is avoided.

One of the principal advantages of the new 'carbid; resides in the fact that after 'it has been removedfrom the water the generation o'fgas ceases immediately. This'is very important.

Having now descrlbed my inventiomtl;

substance indec'omposableby the carbid,combined with a hot liquid agglomerative mixture substantially soluble in water but indecomposableby the carbid and constituting a plastic mass from which the gas-producing body is molded, and having its exposed surface coated witha protecting-medium slowly soluble in water, substantially as described. 2. Asa new article of manufacture, a gasproducing'body of anysuitable shape, prepared, substantially as described, from carbid of calcium'crushed after'having been saturated in oil, combined'in a hot state with a heated liquid agglomerative mixture of glucose, and an oily substance, constituting a plastic massfrom which the gas-producing body ismolded, said body having its exposed surface coated with a protecting medium slowly soluble in'water, as specified.

In testimony whereof I'afiiX my'signature in presence of two witnesses.

claim- 1. As a new article of manufacture, ,a gas 5 producing body composed of carbid of calcium crushed after having been saturated with a CHARLES EMMANUEL YVQNNEAU.

' Witnessesr CHARLES CABANIS, EDWARD P. MACLEAN. 

